Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

[Murphy'sLore]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Congratulations and well done, Shaggy.

[always right]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Yep That was a good one. Tough and plays with great poise. One of those players when he gets his hands on the ball you feel comfortable he is not going to cough it up easily.
Seriously under-rated.

You might get some disagreement on this board. Personally I'm with you.

[Mantis]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Yep That was a good one. Tough and plays with great poise. One of those players when he gets his hands on the ball you feel comfortable he is not going to cough it up easily.
Seriously under-rated.

You might get some disagreement on this board. Personally I'm with you.

You serious EJ?

While he is a nice field kick, (in that they spin ok) his decision making over the years has always been a big concern.

[always right]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

You serious EJ?

While he is a nice field kick, (in that they spin ok) his decision making over the years has always been a big concern.

My only knock on him is that he can tend to blaze long on occasions....so your point is valid. When he does take the right option (which I consider most of the time) he generally hits his target......without lobbing it on their head like some of our blokes do.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

You serious EJ?

While he is a nice field kick, (in that they spin ok) his decision making over the years has always been a big concern.

Disagree.

Has poise, never panics and is rarely caught with the ball.

And if you disagree I'll get him to call around and wack ya - he's good at that too

[Bornadog]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Disagree.

Has poise, never panics and is rarely caught with the ball.

And if you disagree I'll get him to call around and wack ya - he's good at that too

I believe he has a black belt in one of the Marshall arts disciplines

[Axe Man]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Great work Shaggy. I fondly remember him breaking Nick Riewoldt's collar bone back in 2005 I think it was, not that I would ever condone that kind of thing.

Thank goodness he got 1 brownlow vote back in 2009, otherwise he would be rivalling Jason Blake's record!

[Mantis]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

My only knock on him is that he can tend to blaze long on occasions....so your point is valid. When he does take the right option (which I consider most of the time) he generally hits his target......without lobbing it on their head like some of our blokes do.

He does it far too regularly for my liking.

A player as experienced as he is should have gotten this fault out of his game by now.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

You're probably right Mantis, but let's not pick at him this week. It's his 200th. I'll agree with you next week.

[Bornadog]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

He does it far too regularly for my liking.

A player as experienced as he is should have gotten this fault out of his game by now.

All perception. Typically supporters see this happen a few times a game and criticise the player based on those errors.

His stats over a ten year period, say he has on average 16 disposals in his career and 2.2 are clangers, with a disposal efficiency of 80.7%. Pretty good in anyone's books.

[always right]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

He does it far too regularly for my liking.

A player as experienced as he is should have gotten this fault out of his game by now.

But I take it you agree with my second point?

[WBFC4FFC]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Hope Shaggy's milestone gets the boys over the line this Sunday. Understated and reliable. Keep it up.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Congratsulations to Hargrave, I remember him playing his first couple of games as a very, very skinny kid. He's been a really good player for the club. I agree with Darcy that he's been severely underrated.

[Bornadog]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Private Ryan

WESTERN Bulldogs veteran Ryan Hargrave will reach his 200-game milestone in Sydney on Sunday, but his former captain Luke Darcy initially thought he'd be lucky to play even one game.

Darcy has revealed his first impressions of Hargrave were unflattering, believing he was too fragile - both physically and mentally - to cope with League football.

But Darcy - a teammate of Hargrave's for eight years - said his early assessment was quickly proven to be wildly inaccurate, with Hargrave soon earning the respect of the entire Bulldogs list.

Hargrave arrived at Whitten Oval at the end of 1999 - after being selected with the Bulldogs' seventh pick, No. 66 overall, in that year's AFL National Draft - and Darcy soon had grave doubts about the Perth youngster's future at the club.

The first concern for Darcy was Hargrave's underdeveloped physique.

"He was only 18 but he was frail - just skin and bone - and weighed only about 65 kilos wringing wet," Darcy told AFL.com.au.

An early running session raised even greater concerns and seemingly confirmed in Darcy's mind that Hargrave might soon find himself on the scrapheap.

The Terry Wallace-coached Bulldogs were on a 10km run along a looping path through some hills when Hargrave ran into trouble.

At one point the teenager was lagging behind most of the group when he committed the cardinal sin of briefly slowing to a walk. It prompted some hardened Bulldogs (who were running back past him in the opposite direction) to let him know in no uncertain terms that he must keep going.

"We started giving it to him with both barrels: 'Mate, you're kidding yourself - you can't walk.' It's fair to say our opinion of his commitment and mental toughness was rock-bottom at that point," Darcy recalled.

"I will never forget it. He looked like he was going to die. He just couldn't handle it.

"Soon after that we found out that he had a cyst the size of a small basketball growing in his stomach. He had that removed, along with litres of pus.

"The fact he was even upright was one of the more courageous things the doctors had ever seen, let alone the fact he completed a 10km run in the hills.

"We all felt pretty ordinary for potting him.

"He's a really soft-spoken, unassuming, humble guy, but underneath that is this genuinely tough competitor. To play 200 games after coming from that low base is one of the great stories in footy."

Another inspirational chapter of the Hargrave story is evolving right now.

That he is back to his best has been one of the major revelations to emerge from Whitten Oval this season.

At the end of last season, Hargrave's playing future appeared cloudy. During a wretched 2011, foot and ankle injuries restricted him to just five games, including just one sequence of back-to-back appearances. At 30, and with a new coach in Brendan McCartney seemingly certain to embark on a youth-inspired shake-up, Hargrave was under pressure to regain fitness and form.

Adding to the challenge, he has been adapting to fatherhood. His daughter Chelsea was born on February 5 - just a fortnight before the Bulldogs' first NAB Cup fixture.

But Hargrave has managed to resurrect his career, playing eight of nine matches this season (missing the round four win over Greater Western Sydney with a hip complaint) and averaging 22 disposals.

From early on in the NAB Cup, Bulldogs fans were declaring: "'Shaggy' is back". The nickname relates to a perceived physical likeness between Hargrave and Scooby Doo's bumbling, cowardly offsider. Conversely, Hargrave has been decisive and courageous.

He has received just one vote in the Brownlow Medal in his career, but he might well have multiplied that tally already this season.

Darcy marvelled at Hargrave's efforts this season.

"Everyone gets nervous when they're over 30, especially when you've had an injury-plagued year and a new coach comes in because you're not sure how he views you," Darcy said.

"Not only is he back playing, but he's playing as well as he's ever played."

It's quite a statement - and quite an achievement - given Hargrave was such a consistent performer through the Dogs' preliminary final years of 2008-09-10, and he was selected in the initial squad of 40 for the All Australian side in 2009.

Hargrave, who will be 31 next month, told BulldogsTV he will assess his playing future at the end of the season. However, Darcy believes he could play into his mid-'30s.

"I've never met Brendan McCartney but he values hardness, consistency, contested ball and defensive skills, so it sounds like Ryan Hargrave is his ideal type of player," he said. "Hopefully he can squeeze another two, three or four years out of his career."

Hargrave has been one of the most underrated Bulldogs in recent times, according to Darcy.

"He's completely unheralded but the respect he has from his teammates is through the roof," he said.

"People underestimate the role he's played. He can play on talls and smalls, he's always been courageous enough to go back with the flight of the ball, he's able to generate a lot of rebound off half-back, and he doesn't get overawed by any opponent or situation.

"He's very consistent effort-wise. With Shaggy you'd think, 'There's a chance he might get beaten today, but it won't be through a lack of effort, concentration, courage or discipline. That's what being a good, reliable teammate is all about."

One of the proudest people in attendance on Sunday will be Hargrave's father Steven, who played two games for the Bulldogs in 1982, gathering 20 possessions on debut before knee injuries intervened.

As a humourous aside, Hargrave junior initially wore No. 33 but then switched to No. 25, which he believed his father had donned. He was wrong - his dad had worn No. 26 - but Hargrave didn't find that out until some time later.

He has hardly put a foot wrong since.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Congratulations Ryan Hargrave - 200 Games

Congrats Shaggy! Was one of my favourite players a couple of years back, and will always have a bit of a soft spot for him.